Montrealers remember lives lost to opioids, call for change

In 2017, nearly 4,000 Canadians died of apparent opioid-related overdoses — deaths that could potentially have been prevented with the overdose-reversal drug known as Naloxone.

A sombre ceremony was held Friday at Place Emilie-Gamelin to remember those who have died of overdoses. It was one of many vigils held around the world for International Day of Overdose Awareness.

At the Montreal event, survivors lit candles and wrote the names of their lost loved ones on a whiteboard.

The vigil was organized by a provincial non-profit dedicated to the health of drug users, known by its French acronym AQPSUD.

Community groups were also on site, distributing Naloxone kits, which are becoming more readily available to first responders and frontline workers.

After some seven years of asking for that access, advocates are welcoming the change but, they say, more needs to be done to prevent drug-related deaths across the province.

Advocates demand stronger support

Last November, the Quebec government made Naloxone kits available for free at Quebec pharmacies to those over 14 years old.

AQPSUD director, Jean-François Mary, said some drug users do not feel comfortable going to a pharmacy to get their Naloxone kit.

"We've lost people who could have still been alive today if we had Naloxone on hand," he said.

Mary told CBC that lifesaving kits are one thing, but the real solution lies in decriminalization.

"Everything takes ages when it takes on morality and drugs," he said, noting Montreal only launched its safe-injection site project after 10 years of lobbying, and that more sites are still required to meet the city's needs. 

"Because you are doing a drug that is deemed illegal by the state, are you expendable?"

Montreal currently has three safe injection sites and one mobile site.

Martin Pagé is the director of Dopamine, a safe-injection site that also offers services to drug users in Montreal. Since June, Dopamine has distributed about 130 Naloxone kits. 

Being able to distribute the drug is a positive step, he said, but it is one part of preventing deaths and reducing harm for drug users.

"We need to accept that drug users are normal and regular people," he said.

No Canadian community is immune

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the opioid crisis has affected every part of the country, but there are "clear differences in death rates and the substances involved across provinces and territories."

More than 70 per cent of the 3,987 opioid deaths in 2017 involved fentanyl or fentanyl analogues, compared to 55 per cent in 2016. 

There were 181 apparent opioid-related deaths reported in Quebec in 2017, the agency states.

By comparison, British Columbia reported 1,399 such deaths in 2017.

With files from CBC Montreal's Navneet Pall